Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Well, what a day!

I'm sure you all had the same kind of weather as we experienced over the past couple of days. In fact, I believe there were those who suffered worse. But it was quite something here! Very strong, gusty wind against which you had to lean if you wanted to stand still or walk into the wind. Cold, too. We lit the stove for several hours during the afternoon. And torrential rain on and off. I was going to hose Kantara down, but the elements did that for me. I took and Tweeted this photo less than two hours before it all started, saying, "It's good to see the sun again!"
In one of the gaps between the rain, I took these pics of the marina pound. The boats were all rocking and rolling, and no-one dared move.
To those of you who aren't boaters, it probably doesn't look too bad, but believe me, if you're in a seven-foot metal tube, you get thrown around quite a lot!
It was while I was out in such a wind, filling the water tank, that my best watch fell off my wrist and into the pound. I got the magnet on a rope straight away, and I was sure it was hitting against the watch as I moved it around the area where I thought it had gone, but all I got was a single link-pin from the bracelet, bent, and quite obviously the reason why the watch had fallen off. I had to give up. There came a time when, even if I had managed to retrieve it, it would have been too full of muddy water to be useable. I was very sad. It was an expensive watch, given to me by a very special group of kids some fifteen years ago on the day I left Bishopshalt School to take up a post at Sir Frederic Osborne School. They had been my form, my tutor-group, for five years. I've lost the watch, but I still remember them very well, and that's much more important to me.

Having seen the DVD of PItch Perfect last week, Grace and I went to see the sequel the other day. Just us and a lone bloke at that screen. Half-term break's over! It was good fun, and I really love the acapella music in both films, but this one wasn't as good as the first. They didn't pull out anything original. Shame.

The new carpet was fitted today. It took the guy nearly three hours, and he did a fine job of it. It looks great. An excellent solution to the carpet problem which has been with us for a couple of years or more.

Despite our concerns, it seems now that there is no problem, either with the batteries or with the charger. They.re both apparently functioning as they should, and I'm not sure why they weren't a few days ago. The jury's still out on the solar panels, though.

We're going back to the house tomorrow, just for a couple of nights, mainly to collect the rest of the stuff we need for life on Kantara through the summer and autumn - and early winter.

Things are coming on well with my book. Have I mentioned that before? Encouraged by the few other narrowboat books I've seen and read on Kindle, I've been writing my own, based on our experiences leading up to Kantara and into our first three years on her. The working title is "Life with our feet under water". It's different, I think, with three particular ingredients which I hope will make it a bit special. Watch this space!



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